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| Carrie Cooke Ketterman and Jeff Ketterman in Wait Until Dark. Photo – Hayswood Theatre. |
Wait Until Dark
By Frederick Knott
Directed by Bob Trinkle
Reviewed by Keith Waits.
Entire contents are copyright © 2013 Keith Waits. All
rights reserved.
Wait Until Dark is a venerable old chestnut of
the thriller genre – a classically structured build to a tense showdown that is
decidedly old-fashioned in light of the hyper-kinetic and overblown violence
that passes for suspense in contemporary films. As for the stage, it is
difficult to locate any new plays of this type being written. Ira Levin’s Deathtrap
is perhaps the last great entry to date, and it is in fact an ironic parody of
the form.
Frederick Knott was famous for
these kinds of gimmicky suspense plots. Dial M for Murder is perhaps his
best known creation. But Wait Until Dark is arguably a more plausible
scenario that sneaks in some welcome subtext.
A three-man crew attempts to
con a young blind woman into helping them locate a child’s doll filled with
heroin. It is a simple idea executed with fair economy and diabolical strategy
that originates from a simpler time. One can easily imagine the story would be
a blood-drenched horror show if written today. Criminals going to this much
trouble to be clever and ingenious seems as foreign to modern audiences as the
details of a blind person using sugar cubes to keep track of numbers.
Bob Trinkle’s production stays
firmly tied to the original period of the early 1960s, with rotary phones and a
refrigerator light that can illuminate an entire apartment – only two of the
details one can highlight from a set design that is a marvel of mid-century
urban mood. This is truly some of the best work for sets and props I have seen
from a small community theatre like Hayswood. Kudos to Scott Smith and his team
and to props master Emily Trinkle for the detail in everything from the vintage
LIFE magazines on the coffee table to the vinyl record albums stacked
next to the record player (Bobby Vinton was on top). One of the common pet
peeves of community theatres is the inability to accurately represent a period. Wait Until Dark succeeds beautifully on this score.
As Suzy, the woman who is
targeted by these men in her own apartment, Carrie Cook Ketterman comes off at
first as a little too naive and disingenuous. But as the story develops, it
only underscores how easily she is underestimated by the bad guys when she
begins to outwit them before her struggle for survival grows more desperate. As
the lead villain, Jeff Ketterman also begins the play underplaying the
potential menace of his character, so that the degree of ruthlessness he is
capable of might still catch us off guard in the final scenes.
Allen Platt does well by Mike
Talman, the most sympathetic of the three miscreants; and Jake Minton also
gives good support rounding out the trio as Carlino. Kira Hanger was suitably
annoying as Gloria, the bratty neighbor’s kid who eventually comes through in a
pinch. Scott Smith is adequate as Suzy’s husband Sam, who is shuttled offstage
fairly quickly once introduced.
The truth is there isn’t much
for him to do, because playwright Knott is resolute in keeping the action
focused on Suzy’s ability to fend for herself without the help of a man. Not to
claim too much feminist subtext for a commercial entertainment that originates
from before the women’s movement really got going, but it is a satisfying
avoidance of cliché. Sam seems a good guy, but his only meaningful interaction
in the play is a steadfast refusal to make Suzy’s life easier by waiting on
her. His insistence on forcing her to do things for herself and not be
dependent on him could be read as something more than just a plot device to
establish her bona fides before the final physical confrontations.
The intent of Wait Until
Dark may be to keep you in suspense, but it is the strength of the heroine
that makes the play worthwhile fifty years after its premiere.
Wait Until Dark
October 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 & 19 at 8 p.m.
October 6, 13 & 20 at 2 p.m.
Haywood Theater
115 S. Capitol Ave.
Corydon, IN 47112
812-738-2138
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